How to write an About page for a fragrance or apothecary brand

The About page is often the most under-used page on a small product brand's website. It tends to be either completely absent, or written as a dry company history that tells the visitor nothing they care about. For a fragrance, candle or apothecary brand, the About page is one of the most important trust signals you have.

1. Why the About page matters more for product brands

When someone buys from a large retailer, they rarely think about who made the product. When someone buys from a small indie fragrance or apothecary brand, the story behind the product is part of what they are paying for.

The About page is where that story lives. Done well, it explains why this brand exists, why the founder cares about what they make and why the products are worth the price. Done badly — or not at all — it creates a gap between how good the products look and how much the visitor trusts the person behind them.

For intimate product categories — candles, fragrance, skincare, ritual goods, botanical blends — trust is especially important. These are products that people apply to their skin, burn in their homes, give as gifts that carry emotional weight. A brand with no visible human behind it asks a lot of its buyers.

2. What visitors actually want to know

Most visitors who click on an About page want to understand three things: who made this, why they made it, and whether this brand cares about the same things I do. They are not looking for a company history or a list of credentials. They are looking for a reason to trust you enough to buy.

Specific questions they often have: Is this made by a real person or a faceless company? Why does this brand exist — what problem or gap prompted it? How are the products made — are they genuinely crafted or just rebranded wholesale? Does the founder understand what I care about as a customer?

3. What not to write

Avoid the classic small brand About page mistakes. "We are passionate about quality" — every brand says this; it means nothing without specifics. "Our journey began in 2021 when..." — nobody cares about the year unless something specific and interesting happened in it. A list of certifications without context. Corporate language that sounds like it was written for a pitch deck rather than a person. Vague mission statements about "bringing joy" or "elevating the everyday" — these could apply to any product in any category.

The test is simple: could you remove the brand name from your About page and use it for a completely different brand? If yes, it is not specific enough.

4. A structure that works

There is no single right structure for an About page. But for a small fragrance, candle or apothecary brand, this sequence works well:

1. Opening line — one or two sentences that establish what this brand is and who it is for. Not a tagline. A human sentence.
2. The reason the brand exists — a specific story, observation or gap that explains why this was made. Not vague inspiration. A concrete moment or reason.
3. The founder — a short, honest description of the person behind the brand. Name, background, what they bring to the work.
4. How things are made — a brief, specific description of process, sourcing or craft that gives the product credibility.
5. What the brand cares about — values, if you have them, written in specific terms rather than generic language.
6. A next step — a link to the products, a free review, an invitation to get in touch.

5. How to write the founder section

The founder section is where most small brand About pages go wrong. They either avoid mentioning the founder at all (making the brand feel faceless) or they write a career history that nobody asked for.

What works: a photograph — real, not stock — alongside a short paragraph that explains what drove you to start this and what you bring to it. It does not need to be long. Three to five sentences that feel honest and direct are better than ten polished sentences that feel written for a press release.

Specific details build more trust than general ones. "I spent four years working in botanical skincare formulation before starting this" is more useful than "I have always been passionate about natural ingredients." One is a credential. The other is a phrase.

You do not need to share everything. You just need to share enough for a visitor to feel like there is a real person behind the brand who knows what they are doing and cares about the outcome.

6. How to talk about process and craft

For a product brand, the how behind the product matters. It is part of what justifies the price and builds the trust that keeps people coming back. A short, specific description of how the products are made — without overclaiming — does real work on an About page.

Specific is better than expansive. "Each candle is hand-poured in small batches using a coconut-soy blend and fragrance oils from a family supplier in Grasse" tells the visitor something. "Crafted with care using the finest natural ingredients" tells them nothing they could not guess.

You do not need to share proprietary information. You just need to give the visitor enough to feel confident that real thought and craft went into what they are about to buy.

7. Values — how to write them without sounding generic

If your brand has genuine values around sustainability, sourcing, community or craft, the About page is the right place to state them. The key is specificity. "We care about the environment" is a claim. "All our packaging is compostable and we offset production emissions through a specific named programme" is evidence.

If you do not yet have strong differentiated values around these topics, it is better to leave them out than to write something vague that sounds like greenwashing. Visitors are perceptive. A claim that cannot be backed up with specifics often damages trust more than saying nothing.

What counts as a genuine value is broader than sustainability. It can be about the relationship with customers, the way the products are tested, the sourcing decisions, the community the brand serves, the aesthetic philosophy behind the design. Any of these, written specifically, builds more trust than a generic mission statement.

8. About page checklist

• Opening sentence that clearly states what the brand is and who it is for
• A specific reason the brand exists — not vague inspiration
• Founder name and real photograph
• Short honest founder description — what they bring to the work
• Specific process or craft detail
• Values written with evidence, not just claims
• A clear next step — link to products, free review or contact
• No generic phrases that could apply to any brand
• No year-by-year company timeline unless the history genuinely adds something
• Readable on mobile — most visitors will see this on a phone